Using our immune system to fight COVID-19

29 April, 2020

There is something unusual about the initial–or innate–immune response to COVID-19 compared to usual influenza patterns.

Professor Paul Hertzog

The disease severity is surprisingly low in children, but high in older people. Our innate immune response provides early antiviral protection and shapes the immunity required later for vaccine responses. But, if uncontrolled, the resulting hyper-acute inflammation from excess cytokines can lead to potentially lethal ARDS.

How does the lung microbiome influence the innate immune response including inflammation?

Why is research into the innate immune response needed?

“We don’t understand why some people have mild disease and recover, while others develop life-threatening illness,” Prof Paul Hertzog said. “This includes the apparent ‘resistance’ of young people and sensitivity of older patients.” This study aims to study everything from patient genetics, to the nature of their immune cells and the molecules they produce.

Understanding early immune responses to COVID-19 will help scientists design vaccines to optimise successful protection.

Prof Hertzog said the response to the COVID-19 pandemic highlights the global scientific community’s ability to work at pace, thanks to the latest cutting-edge technology and highly skilled scientists. “We have seen remarkable advances in the ability of the international scientific community to respond to a crisis such as this pandemic. The virus was isolated and its whole genome sequenced in three days, enabling tests to be available quickly, and vaccine projects to begin at an unprecedented pace,” he said. “Nevertheless, a vaccine would take at least 12 to 18 months to develop.”

In the interim, he said there was much more work to be done around the potential to harness innate immunity to fight pandemic and/or drug-resistant infections or respond to health issues by developing better immune biomarkers for disease diagnosis and surveillance, or immunotherapeutics and vaccines for treatment and prevention.

The benefit of targeting the innate immune response is the existence of common elements regardless of the infection—COVID, SARS, EBOLA, and antibiotic-resistant bacteria. This complements approaches that do target specific infections, such as antiviral drugs, vaccines and antibiotics.